Generic drugs

[Ginny52]

Hello wonderful forum, to whom I owe my current status as an nhs hypothyroid patient (provisional!)

I just thought of something, and I’m sure I can’t be the first.

There must be others who remember when all presentations of a particular drug looked the same. This was said to be helpful for confused/elderly people, and did make it less likely that you would poison yourself, but then some time during the early nineties Tory administration, I think, that turned out not to be nearly as important as letting free market capitalists fill their boots. Now pills come in a dozen different shapes and sizes for the same thing. Apart from a worrying incident when I was afraid I might have given my son two different kinds of cocodamol at the same time believing they were different things, the first time I really found out what a problem it was was with Levothyroxine, because they just don’t all work the same.

After I had made lot of fuss at my local pharmacy about getting MercuryPharma, I actually found Wockhardt worked better, and it was nobody’s fault but mine when I got MP on Friday. I was too embarrassed to say, and they didn’t work as well. This has always seemed so silly, I just can’t really believe it, but it’s true.

Then I thought this morning, what if it’s at least partly to do with solubility? When I tried it, the MP was very hard to dissolve. I read various references online to grinding it up, so I’m going to see if that helps (too ashamed to complain to the pharmacist who failed to stay abreast of my prejudices through no fault of his own).

[phoenix23002]

Yes... you are correct that many of us react differently to the additions (excipients) that are in many of our medications. They can inhibit the absorption of the active ingredient. There was a post by a man who was having a terrible time with the 'new' Erfa who found that if he ground up the Erfa and then took it (he let the powder dissolve in his mouth) that his hypo symptoms resolved. He had previously had no problems with the 'old' Erfa. Erfa changed their mfg facilities from Brussels to Spain and swore there was no difference in the end product. That was a lie because a lot of folks started complaining that their hypo symptoms were returning.

I have a bad back and took Nuprin (ibuprophen) for years for pain relief. It worked wonderfully. If I took another well known brand of ibuprophen, no pain relief. I couldn't figure it out until I noticed that this brand's pill had a hard coating, almost like a coat of fingernail polish. I could actually scrape off this coating. When I did this and took the pill, I experienced pain relief. I guess many of us produce varying degrees of stomach acid and we can be fast or slow digesters. Apparently, I am a fast digester and the hard-coated pill moved thru my system too fast for the coating to dissolve entirely.

All of these variations could have an effect on how our body responds to different medications.

[Ginny52 in reply to phoenix23002]

I noticed something similar with the MP levo-if you put the tablet in your mouth it’s very bitter, but when crushed it’s almost sweet, so the bitter stuff seems to be a coating, presumably to extend release time. How odd!

[silverfox7]

That's interesting. I've noticed for years that Ines taking Thyroid S tend not to bechappy with Thiroyd as vice versa. I wonder if that's why. I'm happy with Thyroid S which has a hard surface and as ever seen it suggested it's slow release but trying to get one with less fillers I tried Thiroyd and after two days with continuous raging headaches I had to give it up! Could it be the T3 was hitting me with a sledgehammer?

[Ginny52 in reply to silverfox7]

Since I’ve now got two months worth of sub optimal pills, I’m going to try bashing ‘em up first and see if it’s better!

I also wonder if this might make the stuff behave more like liquid, with less need for a long wait before breakfast x